


Surprise

by servantofclio



Series: Zoe Ryder [6]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-26 10:07:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13233480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/servantofclio/pseuds/servantofclio
Summary: Ryder gets a surprise birthday party.





	Surprise

“Come on, just close your eyes,” Liam says.

“What did you do this time?” Zoe asks, both amused and wary. Liam’s surprises can be a little hit or miss, sometimes. That time on Aya when he blindsided her with a scheme? Miss. Surprise dinner date on the Nexus? Hit.

“Nothing bad, I promise. Come on, humor me.”

“Fine.” She closes her eyes. “Where are we going?”

“Back to cargo — come on —”

Okay, they can’t get into too much trouble on the _Tempest_. She lets him steer her to the lift and down. She hears voices, but not a lot of clanging coming from the engine room. She’s not sure whether that’s a good or a bad thing. At least it probably means Gil’s not annoying Kallo right this minute.

“Don’t peek,” Liam says just as she was considering opening her eyelids a slit.

“I’m not,” she protests.

He puts both hands over her eyes anyway.

“Hey! What, you don’t trust me?”

“About this? Not a chance, Ryder.”

“I’m _hurt_ ,” she says. “Like, seriously offended, Liam.”

Someone’s laughing. It sounds like Suvi, and maybe Kallo, too.

“Okay, okay, you can open your eyes now,” Liam says, sweeping his hands away with a flourish.

“Surprise!” everyone shouts, Jaal a beat late.

Zoe blinks. Half of the cargo deck, including the Nomad is festooned in colored streamers. There are honest to God fresh flowers — some kind she doesn’t recognize, they must have come from Jaal. And planted on a table —

“Is that _cake_?”

“Vetra got the ingredients, but I made it,” Suvi says. “I hope you like it.”

The whole crew is there, too, looking at her expectantly. Zoe starts to say, “What’s the occasion —” and stops halfway through the last word.

The old calendars kind of don’t mean shit in Heleus, after all. There’s been an ongoing argument about that between Tann and Addison, whether they should stick to the Milky Way’s Galactic Standard, even though all the Milky Way species kept their own time on top of it, or start fresh. A lot of the colonists she’s met count from the day the Nexus arrived in Andromeda. In her head, Zoe tends to count from the date _Hyperion_ arrived.

But if she goes by the old Earth standard, then it’s — it’s —

“Happy birthday, Zoe,” SAM says, quietly, inside her head.

It’s her birthday, and Zach’s birthday, and Zach’s still down for the count.

“Oh wow,” she says weakly. “You guys…”

“I know it’s weird, without your brother and all,” Liam says. He’s come around in front of her now and is watching her with a worried expression. A lot of the rest of them are starting to look concerned, too. “I just thought, you know —”

“We thought you deserved to celebrate,” Suvi says softly.

“Got to have something to celebrate, right?” Gil adds.

“I _told_ you guys —” Peebee starts.

Zoe shakes her head and breaks in before they can start arguing, and before Suvi can look any sadder. “No, it’s great, you guys, I just… wasn’t thinking about it. At all.” She takes a deep breath. It’s her birthday. She’s twenty-three, plus several hundred years. “Everything looks fantastic. Thank you. We’ll just have to do this again once Zach’s awake, too.”

“Good idea,” Cora says.

Zoe takes another breath, letting that idea sink in. Zach’s going to wake up, and they’ll do another birthday then, and she’ll make fun of him for missing this one. It’s a plan. Cool. “So, we’re going to try this cake, right?”

“Yes!” Suvi exclaims, and Drack produces a wicked-looking knife from somewhere to cut it with, and everyone’s talking at once.

Liam gives Zoe a one-armed hug from the side. “Hope this is really okay,” he says.

She leans into him. She would have remembered eventually, and then she would have felt crappy about missing her own birthday. “Yeah, it is. Thank you.”


End file.
